Sunday, August 26, 2012

Diviner by Bryan Davis

I decided to welcome my return from camp by having the giveaway countdown move towards the the second last milestone. After this, the giveaway will end a week after my review of Liberator. If you haven't entered my giveaway yet, you can do so here.

In Diviner, Koren has gone to the dark side. She's now (unwillingly) helping Taushin. Meanwhile, Jason, Elyssa and the rest are desperately trying to bring in the army from Major Four/Darksphere and rescue the humans. The two groups are moving towards an inevietable clash.

After my review of Warrior, Bryan Davis commented that I was being too harsh on Koren. That is true. I'm not sure why, but I judge her the most harshly. I think the reason is that I see the parts of myself that I don't like in her. Koren is somtimes impulsive, sometimes proud and (the most important part to me), sometimes prone to thinking the ends justify the means. In short, if I were here, I'd probably make the same mistakes that I call stupid.

As for the other characters, well, there was an interesting (if small) step further in Jason and Elyssa's relationship. Up until this book, I honestly didn't know who Jason would end up with because it seems like all three girls (Cassabrie, Elyssa and Koren) like him. And while I totally support this pairing, I'm glad that it's a small part of the book. It feels more natural this way, and it doesn't impede the story; I really hate it when the romance hijacks a good plot.

Compared to the first book, Magmar has developed a lot, and you can understand Arxad's character a lot more. Some backstory is revealed and I think that it provides a new dimension to them. Apart from that, Orion (the "bad guy" from the first book) is also given more back-story and well, he seems less evil than confused. Really cool and believable character developement.

With regards to theme, my biggest takeaway from this book was how seductively good evil can be. I have this feeling that Taushin is bad, but sometimes, I really really want to agree with his logic. It's in the second book as well, but I felt the full force of it here for some reason. It's a timely reminder that as fallen humans, we want to agree with the logic of the world rather than the logic of God. But, one road leads to hell and the other to heaven.

If you've read and loved the first two books in this series, you definitely have to get this book. And after reading it, you'll be very impatient to continue with Liberator. These books definitely belong in a set, it's hard to make sense of the series if you jump in half-way.

Disclaimer: I got this book free from Zondervan in exchange for a free and honest review.

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